Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day: Mark David Lassila

Many gun control advocates see gun ownership as a Catch-22. Guns are too dangerous for mentally unstable people. Anyone who wants a gun is mentally unstable. Get yourself out of THAT one. Meanwhile, I believe that gun owners have a responsibility to use their weapon responsibly—even when they’re not using it. By not wielding a gun like a much macho religion-clinging “there but for the grace of God go you” proto-psycho-killer, responsible gun owners disprove the notion that the average firearms lacks the emotional intelligence to own a gun. Come to think of it, not really. If gun control groups see ONE legal gun owner lose their cool and shoot someone—a statistically insignificant occurrence that happens on a regular basis—it “proves” their theory. Still, it’s always a good idea to be a good example. Unlike, say, Mark David Lassila. duluthnewstribune.com tells the tale . . .

At 12:55 a.m. Jan. 5, Cloquet police responded to a call from a private snowplow driver who reportedly had been threatened while plowing the parking lot of the Lost Tavern in Cloquet. The plow driver stated that Lassila, who lives adjacent to the Lost Tavern, allegedly made an obscene gesture at him through the window of his home before later returning to the window with a rifle in his arms and then turning out the lights.

When the driver alerted police, two officers confronted Lassila in his home and confiscated a Remington 7400 Model 30.06 rifle from his residence.

Lassila’s going down for “making terroristic threats,” though he’s pleaded it down from a felony to a gross misdemeanor non-weapon offense. We here at TTAG add IGO OTD to his list of accomplishments

comments

If you don't mind me saying so, having an AR-15 in plain sight is strategically uh, inadvisable. I operate on the principle that the fewer people that know what weapons I have, the better.

Legally, if you get arrested on a weapons-related charge, your neighbor can tell the police "He's got an AR-15 in his house. I've seen it." That's enough evidence for a search warrant and subsequent confiscation of ALL your guns. Your (presumed) arsenal will look VERY bad in front a jury.

If, by contrast, you lock your guns in a safe, even if one is confiscated for a crime, the police will have a hard time getting a search warrant to open the safe and take your (entirely theoretical) remaining weapons.

Anyway, more to the point, flipping the bird and holding the gun and turning off the lights were connected in this case. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would be scared shitless and run like hell.

The law on terroristic threats is pretty clear:

"A terroristic threat is a crime generally involving a threat to commit violence communicated with the intent to terrorize another, to cause evacuation of a building, or to cause serious public inconvenience, in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience. It may mean an offense against property or involving danger to another person that may include but is not limited to recklessly endangering another person, harassment, stalking, ethnic intimidation, and criminal mischief."

So let me get this straight. Giving someone the bird and then having a gun in your hands is a terrorist threat? Oh also he shut off the lights and went to bed. In that case I am too I guess. I have given people the bird from my window. And my AR-15 can be seen from the window. Love the blog and the podcast, however this is asinine.

To your first point. Not only would they need a search warrent to get into my gun safe, but, explosives as well. Yes I do have a lot more then the AR-15. As to the terrorist threat, I do agree what this guy did was dumb as all get up. However from the story, and let me know if I got it wrong, he gave the guy the bird, they driver cought sight of the gun, and the lights went off. How is that “communicating”? If I am walking down the street with my .45 ACP strapped to my leg, and someone thinks I gave them a dirty look is that the same thing? That’s how it sounds. BTW I am a massive supporter of the Second Amendment, and the constitution as well. 🙂
Just trying to keep the conversation going not be a a..hole